


Tân

by aderyn



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Episode: s02e01 A Scandal in Belgravia, Episode: s02e03 The Reichenbach Fall, Episode: s03e03 His Last Vow, Holding Hands, Middle Names, Names, Oaths & Vows, Post-His Last Vow, Promises, Sussex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 17:11:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn/pseuds/aderyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Say my name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tân

**Author's Note:**

> Tân-Welsh, fire.

 

“William,” John says, strips the old wax from the wick, “Sherlock,”sets the candle in its flask-nest, “Scott,” turns the whole centered on the scratched table, “Holmes.”

Tucks a stalk in a beaker.

Strikes a match.

*****

It’s late. They’ve slept, heads cached in arms, through dinner, wake with starts.

“John,” Sherlock says, “let me.”

A fire leaps up in his hands.  
  
 *****

Well.

There are so many flames.

The true name of his new daughter is a secret.

His wife’s is a secret too.

“Call me by my name,” Mary said, just once, while brick flickered in the grate and his hands fanned her hair and he smiled against her open mouth.

He tried.

Remembered the fire.

In which we burn our pasts.

*****

_Doctor,_ the mirror says, _soldier, father, husband, lover_.

_Killer._

A voice out of the years whispers, _darling, it’s a disguise, a self-portrait_

_on dogtags and post-its, but you know, you know who you are._

“John,” Sherlock, says, “John.”

Shakes him awake as dawn ignites dust.

In his old bedroom at Baker Street.

*****

Thing is.

Names don't belong on gravestones.

The one on yours is wrong, was always wrong, will always be.

There are so many flames.

All gone.

“Sherlock Holmes,” you said, and it was an invitation.

Oath, vow, incantation, promise.

If I had all of _those_ , John thinks, I might have been able to conjure you.

From the dead.

Thing is.

You’ve got to say them all, the names of the living.

Say them like a curse, speak them slow,with reverence, with fear, with anger, with love.

*****

London has a secret name she’s told him, only him, so Sherlock says.

Tells him _take it with you._

_When you go._   
  
*****

They’re having dinner in the garden, Sussex a hum of midsummer.

_Cornus sanguinea,_ white candle. Case notes bunched under an old map.

“I know,” Sherlock says, “I know.”

_I know your secret name._

Takes his hand, sets the wick aflame.

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Cornus sanguinea, Midwinter fire dogwood](http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Hyde-Hall/About-HydeHall/Plant-of-the-month/December/Cornus-sanguinea--Midwinter-Fire-)


End file.
